What Good Can A Handgun Do Against An Army?

BY Herschel Smith
5 years ago

Recall when I said this?

Do you suppose this would look like great land armies getting into formation at the edges of great fields of battle and marching towards each other?  What do you think such a messy civil war in America would look like?  Bubba would be wearing a Ghillie suit, shooting a bolt action rifle, or a modern sporting rifle, and after the shot you will never hear from him again – until the next one.  And you’ll never catch him.  Police will have to decide what side to take, and if they take the wrong one, they will be dealt with in the middle of the night when they take their dogs out to pee in the backyard.

Insurgent will be mixed with progressive statist, and there will be no SEAL teams or nuclear weapons to which you can turn because you won’t know one from another.  There will be nowhere to target a nuclear weapon, and nowhere for a SEAL team to raid.  All of their close quarters battle preparations will be for naught when their own families are in peril due to civil warfare.  These aren’t Afghan tribesmen you’re dealing with.  These are engineers, mechanics, fabricators and welders, chemists, and the world’s best machinists.  If you think Afghanistan was rough, wait to see what civil war would look like in America.

If you have ever said something like, “You can’t win because the government has a land army and nuclear weapons,” here is the moral of the story for you.  You are an idiot.

Some statist is having wet dreams of civil war against conservatives again, this time at Washington Monthly.  She says this (I assume it’s a she).

The only way for these Civil War fantasies to work out for the right wing is for the government to join them, The gov’t may acquiesce now and then (like the sheriffs who won’t enforce the law), but when the shooting starts, one side has tanks and fighter jets, the other side has handguns and semi-automatic rifles. Even if the Texas Air National Guard and a few others go full treason, they are still woefully out numbered and out gunned.  Red Dawn is make believe, guys.

For the author to accuse “rightists” of fantasizing about civil war, they sure do seem to be spending a lot of time in this article and comments fantasizing about civil war on “rightists.”

So what can one pistol do against an evil regime?  Watch this video to find out.

“This happened in the city of Maturin, on the East side of Venezuela. The National Guard was coming hard and heavy against some protesters when one of them pulled out a pistol, took several shots and apparently hit one of the guardsmen.

They stopped their charge.”

And yes, I’m well aware that I have titled the post the same as Mike Vanderboegh, and I have done it intentionally.  Go read his analysis, which is still the best.

Trackbacks & Pingbacks


Comments

  1. On March 14, 2019 at 11:47 pm, BRVTVS said:

    What you wrote above reminds me of an interview with a Vietnam veteran who was on the receiving end of such tactics. https://youtu.be/tixOyiR8B-8

  2. On March 15, 2019 at 7:58 am, Aesop said:

    Or someone walks up behind some trooper near an alley.
    maybe even a pretty young girl.
    Bang.

    Ho ho ho, now I have a machinegun.

    Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

    Then a few like-minded friends visit the laager, and now they have a tank.

    Then they visit the airfield, and your squadron goes away in great balls of fire. And you can’t whistle up a new one any more.

    And so on.

    The military will be sitting any civil war out.
    They know before it starts that they can only lose, not win.
    They’ll restrict everyone to base, lock the gates, and repel boarders, but they won’t come out to play, nor take sides, until it’s over.

    Check.

    Then Progressivism Inc. realizes they’ve no more Palace Guard nor Sheriff of Nottingham to inflict their schemes on an unwilling populace, and it’s them against 600M guns and 2T rounds of ammo, and they’d sort of let that end of planning go, thinking it would be Cavalry vs. Indians, but it’ll turn into Rednecks against Androgynous Bureaucrats.

    As Matt Bracken noted:
    If you don’t know what ‘sub MOA’ means, you shouldn’t start a civil war against people who do.

    Neither Col. Quadaffi nor Marie Antoinette could be reached for comment.

    Mate.

  3. On March 15, 2019 at 7:58 am, Mark Matis said:

    What do you think would happen if Uncle decided to pop a nuke over flyover country? Please note that is the vast Red heartland, but there are Blue hives there as well. Of course, this country’s “leaders” and their enablers would have no concern about exterminating some of their own supporters in the process. “One has to break some eggs to make an omelet” was a quote from a BATFE agent after Brian Terry was killed. But the wind patterns across this country generally flow from west to east. Where do you think the fallout cloud would go AFTER the big boom?

    Hive dwellers have been terrorized of radiation by their Masters for years. If you want some fun, take a geiger counter to the Big Craphole and use it on a banana:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose
    Times Square would be a good place to try this.

    What do you think the bystanders will do when you show the geiger counter reacts to radiation emitted by that banana? Especially if you then clutch your chest and collapse while saying something appropriate?

    Now imagine a fallout cloud draping itself over every hive on the East Coast…

  4. On March 15, 2019 at 9:50 am, Fred said:

    It will be about another month or so and we’ll hit the first 10,000 mark of folks who have had their weapons and ammunition seized.

    I agree with her and not because the entire governmental structure is communists, and it is, and not because everybody in it is communist, and they are, the Right isn’t going to do anything.

    Lindsey Graham has a National Weapons Seizure (Red Flag) bill in his committee that Trump is going to sign. What are you doing about that, Grey Man? Nothing. You will continue to hide and retreat.

    The people on the so called Right are communists as are those that still support Trump and they merely want control of the reigns of power, not liberty. Aesop’s delusional fantasies are just that. The US government and it’s police ARE confiscating weapons.

    Herschel, I think that she is much closer to correct and/but nobody wins. Enjoy the camps

  5. On March 15, 2019 at 11:02 am, I R A Darth Aggie said:

    Easier solution: kill the power transmission lines going into the major blue zones. For the most part, they import their power. No electricity? modern life comes to a grinding halt. After a few days, you’ll have riots in their streets demanding that power be restored.

  6. On March 15, 2019 at 11:26 am, Nutty Old Geezer said:

    No one knows when things start until suddenly they do. But most are still way behind the eight ball. Why fight a army? You just don’t have to go there. Much easier is to attack the deep swamp. How? Their lifeblood. MONEY. Stop the trains going by. Attack a lock on the Mississippi. Get a 100gallon tank full of gas and park it under a major overpass on the local interstate. Just kill any infrastructure that allows commerce. Cell towers and TV towers fall if you take a portable angle grinder to support cables. Burn the local cable TV site. Burn a local newspaper building. Dig up a fiber optic cable and cut. In multiple areas. Shoot power transformers. Make local LEOs afraid to go to work. Stop IRS employees going to work. Soon the money runs dry and so does any “power” the deep state thinks it has. Will it be nice to live here then? Hell no. But it also won’t be so nice if deep state takes total control. Pick your poison. But if people let the deep state know they won’t take it, someone I hope will reign deep state in and stop the insanity.

  7. On March 15, 2019 at 11:31 am, Geoff said:

    Tanks and helicopters didn’t help the Russians much in Afghanistan. Defeated by the mujahideen. Russia finally gave up.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Afghan_War
    Much the same could happen here, but I seriously doubt the Military would take the side of the Left against the American public.

    FRED, Trump will not sign any anti-gun Bills as this would ruin his chance for re-election.

  8. On March 15, 2019 at 12:43 pm, eclecticmn said:

    1. If handguns are s useless then why did Hitler and others ban private handgun ownership?

    2. Some guy with a gun cannot outgun the feds. How many feds were sent to Ruby Ridge for a couple guys? How many to the Bundys? Waco? Hundreds each I recall. My point is that there aren’t enough feds to control more than a few people at that ratio.

  9. On March 15, 2019 at 3:29 pm, scott s. said:

    It’s not an area of particular interest for me, but there has been a good deal of scholarship lately on the US Civil War in the border areas (primarily) conducted by irregulars. It seems to have been a particularly brutal experience for everyone.

  10. On March 15, 2019 at 6:46 pm, Frank Clarke said:

    http://frankclarke.dx.am/TipPtPage.html published 2011.

  11. On March 15, 2019 at 10:22 pm, Bill said:

    A better question is, Do the feds have enough people to protect all the politicians, media and their families when they start getting executed?????

  12. On March 15, 2019 at 10:49 pm, Miles said:

    Bill;
    MVB posited on that:
    They will fight to the last ATF agent or to the last oath-breaking soldier. Will they fight to the first senior bureaucrat, the second Congressman, the third newspaper editor, the fourth Senator, the fifth White House aide? Can they stand Bill Clinton’s rules of engagement?

    If and when “it” hits the fan, it will be 4GW – or worse – with Clinton’s ROE which ripped the Geneva Convention’s definitions of “non-combatants” out of the book.

  13. On March 15, 2019 at 11:45 pm, Saint Mike said:

    Sorry Geoff, Trump will sign anti gun bills, he’s already made 550,00 plus current/former MAGA voters instant Felons with a stroke of his pen in 10 days.

    He has terrible advisors and I believe he is big city New York ambivalent about guns. Anyways he will be a one term Prez. Bumpstocks.

  14. On March 19, 2019 at 2:28 pm, Gryphon said:

    The Correct Answer to the libtards who say “An Individual with a Rifle can’t Fight an Army” is simply, “He Doesn’t” The Individual Rifleman Fights an Army one soldier at a Time, usually ‘Support troops’, or Officers (and their Families) and against Infrastructure of the Hives, (cities) Without which, the Enemy Leaders and useful idiots cannot Survive for more than a couple of weeks, Tops.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment


You are currently reading "What Good Can A Handgun Do Against An Army?", entry #20759 on The Captain's Journal.

This article is filed under the category(s) Second Amendment and was published March 14th, 2019 by Herschel Smith.

If you're interested in what else the The Captain's Journal has to say, you might try thumbing through the archives and visiting the main index, or; perhaps you would like to learn more about TCJ.

26th MEU (10)
Abu Muqawama (12)
ACOG (2)
ACOGs (1)
Afghan National Army (36)
Afghan National Police (17)
Afghanistan (704)
Afghanistan SOFA (4)
Agriculture in COIN (3)
AGW (1)
Air Force (40)
Air Power (10)
al Qaeda (83)
Ali al-Sistani (1)
America (22)
Ammunition (275)
Animals (282)
Ansar al Sunna (15)
Anthropology (3)
Antonin Scalia (1)
AR-15s (373)
Arghandab River Valley (1)
Arlington Cemetery (2)
Army (86)
Assassinations (2)
Assault Weapon Ban (28)
Australian Army (7)
Azerbaijan (4)
Backpacking (2)
Badr Organization (8)
Baitullah Mehsud (21)
Basra (17)
BATFE (218)
Battle of Bari Alai (2)
Battle of Wanat (18)
Battle Space Weight (3)
Bin Laden (7)
Blogroll (3)
Blogs (24)
Body Armor (23)
Books (3)
Border War (18)
Brady Campaign (1)
Britain (38)
British Army (35)
Camping (5)
Canada (17)
Castle Doctrine (1)
Caucasus (6)
CENTCOM (7)
Center For a New American Security (8)
Charity (3)
China (16)
Christmas (16)
CIA (30)
Civilian National Security Force (3)
Col. Gian Gentile (9)
Combat Outposts (3)
Combat Video (2)
Concerned Citizens (6)
Constabulary Actions (3)
Coolness Factor (3)
COP Keating (4)
Corruption in COIN (4)
Council on Foreign Relations (1)
Counterinsurgency (218)
DADT (2)
David Rohde (1)
Defense Contractors (2)
Department of Defense (210)
Department of Homeland Security (26)
Disaster Preparedness (5)
Distributed Operations (5)
Dogs (15)
Donald Trump (27)
Drone Campaign (4)
EFV (3)
Egypt (12)
El Salvador (1)
Embassy Security (1)
Enemy Spotters (1)
Expeditionary Warfare (17)
F-22 (2)
F-35 (1)
Fallujah (17)
Far East (3)
Fathers and Sons (2)
Favorite (1)
Fazlullah (3)
FBI (39)
Featured (189)
Federal Firearms Laws (18)
Financing the Taliban (2)
Firearms (1,758)
Football (1)
Force Projection (35)
Force Protection (4)
Force Transformation (1)
Foreign Policy (27)
Fukushima Reactor Accident (6)
Ganjgal (1)
Garmsir (1)
general (15)
General Amos (1)
General James Mattis (1)
General McChrystal (44)
General McKiernan (6)
General Rodriguez (3)
General Suleimani (9)
Georgia (19)
GITMO (2)
Google (1)
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (1)
Gun Control (1,633)
Guns (2,298)
Guns In National Parks (3)
Haditha Roundup (10)
Haiti (2)
HAMAS (7)
Haqqani Network (9)
Hate Mail (8)
Hekmatyar (1)
Heroism (4)
Hezbollah (12)
High Capacity Magazines (16)
High Value Targets (9)
Homecoming (1)
Homeland Security (3)
Horses (2)
Humor (72)
Hunting (31)
ICOS (1)
IEDs (7)
Immigration (106)
India (10)
Infantry (4)
Information Warfare (4)
Infrastructure (4)
Intelligence (23)
Intelligence Bulletin (6)
Iran (171)
Iraq (379)
Iraq SOFA (23)
Islamic Facism (64)
Islamists (98)
Israel (19)
Jaish al Mahdi (21)
Jalalabad (1)
Japan (3)
Jihadists (81)
John Nagl (5)
Joint Intelligence Centers (1)
JRTN (1)
Kabul (1)
Kajaki Dam (1)
Kamdesh (9)
Kandahar (12)
Karachi (7)
Kashmir (2)
Khost Province (1)
Khyber (11)
Knife Blogging (7)
Korea (4)
Korengal Valley (3)
Kunar Province (20)
Kurdistan (3)
Language in COIN (5)
Language in Statecraft (1)
Language Interpreters (2)
Lashkar-e-Taiba (2)
Law Enforcement (6)
Lawfare (14)
Leadership (6)
Lebanon (6)
Leon Panetta (2)
Let Them Fight (2)
Libya (14)
Lines of Effort (3)
Littoral Combat (8)
Logistics (50)
Long Guns (1)
Lt. Col. Allen West (2)
Marine Corps (280)
Marines in Bakwa (1)
Marines in Helmand (67)
Marjah (4)
MEDEVAC (2)
Media (67)
Medical (146)
Memorial Day (6)
Mexican Cartels (41)
Mexico (61)
Michael Yon (6)
Micromanaging the Military (7)
Middle East (1)
Military Blogging (26)
Military Contractors (5)
Military Equipment (25)
Militia (9)
Mitt Romney (3)
Monetary Policy (1)
Moqtada al Sadr (2)
Mosul (4)
Mountains (25)
MRAPs (1)
Mullah Baradar (1)
Mullah Fazlullah (1)
Mullah Omar (3)
Musa Qala (4)
Music (25)
Muslim Brotherhood (6)
Nation Building (2)
National Internet IDs (1)
National Rifle Association (95)
NATO (15)
Navy (30)
Navy Corpsman (1)
NCOs (3)
News (1)
NGOs (3)
Nicholas Schmidle (2)
Now Zad (19)
NSA (3)
NSA James L. Jones (6)
Nuclear (62)
Nuristan (8)
Obama Administration (221)
Offshore Balancing (1)
Operation Alljah (7)
Operation Khanjar (14)
Ossetia (7)
Pakistan (165)
Paktya Province (1)
Palestine (5)
Patriotism (7)
Patrolling (1)
Pech River Valley (11)
Personal (72)
Petraeus (14)
Pictures (1)
Piracy (13)
Pistol (4)
Pizzagate (21)
Police (648)
Police in COIN (3)
Policy (15)
Politics (969)
Poppy (2)
PPEs (1)
Prisons in Counterinsurgency (12)
Project Gunrunner (20)
PRTs (1)
Qatar (1)
Quadrennial Defense Review (2)
Quds Force (13)
Quetta Shura (1)
RAND (3)
Recommended Reading (14)
Refueling Tanker (1)
Religion (491)
Religion and Insurgency (19)
Reuters (1)
Rick Perry (4)
Rifles (1)
Roads (4)
Rolling Stone (1)
Ron Paul (1)
ROTC (1)
Rules of Engagement (75)
Rumsfeld (1)
Russia (37)
Sabbatical (1)
Sangin (1)
Saqlawiyah (1)
Satellite Patrols (2)
Saudi Arabia (4)
Scenes from Iraq (1)
Second Amendment (668)
Second Amendment Quick Hits (2)
Secretary Gates (9)
Sharia Law (3)
Shura Ittehad-ul-Mujahiden (1)
SIIC (2)
Sirajuddin Haqqani (1)
Small Wars (72)
Snipers (9)
Sniveling Lackeys (2)
Soft Power (4)
Somalia (8)
Sons of Afghanistan (1)
Sons of Iraq (2)
Special Forces (28)
Squad Rushes (1)
State Department (23)
Statistics (1)
Sunni Insurgency (10)
Support to Infantry Ratio (1)
Supreme Court (52)
Survival (185)
SWAT Raids (57)
Syria (38)
Tactical Drills (38)
Tactical Gear (14)
Taliban (168)
Taliban Massing of Forces (4)
Tarmiyah (1)
TBI (1)
Technology (21)
Tehrik-i-Taliban (78)
Terrain in Combat (1)
Terrorism (96)
Thanksgiving (13)
The Anbar Narrative (23)
The Art of War (5)
The Fallen (1)
The Long War (20)
The Surge (3)
The Wounded (13)
Thomas Barnett (1)
Transnational Insurgencies (5)
Tribes (5)
TSA (24)
TSA Ineptitude (13)
TTPs (4)
U.S. Border Patrol (6)
U.S. Border Security (18)
U.S. Sovereignty (23)
UAVs (2)
UBL (4)
Ukraine (10)
Uncategorized (98)
Universal Background Check (3)
Unrestricted Warfare (4)
USS Iwo Jima (2)
USS San Antonio (1)
Uzbekistan (1)
V-22 Osprey (4)
Veterans (3)
Vietnam (1)
War & Warfare (412)
War & Warfare (41)
War Movies (4)
War Reporting (21)
Wardak Province (1)
Warriors (6)
Waziristan (1)
Weapons and Tactics (79)
West Point (1)
Winter Operations (1)
Women in Combat (21)
WTF? (1)
Yemen (1)

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006

about · archives · contact · register

Copyright © 2006-2024 Captain's Journal. All rights reserved.